Riverfront Park

The town council will hear an update Tuesday on the parks and recreation department's plan to expand the popular Riverfront Park. The second phase of the project has been in the planning stages for the past year and includes plans for the town's first public boat launch as well as a boathouse for the Glastonbury Crew Club. Plans also call for the extension of the trail system, a handicapped-accessible playground, picnic areas and lighted basketball court. Parks and recreation director Raymond Purtell will update the council on the permitting process.

GLASTONBURY - It's hard to believe what was once an abandoned tire dealership and piles of dirt a few years ago has been turned into a state-of-the-art boathouse and boat launch on the banks of the Connecticut River. With the facility set to have a grand opening on Sept. 27, here are some things area residents need to know about the $12 million Glastonbury Riverfront Park. Cut That Ribbon: The grand opening will be held on the morning of September 27. Final details are still being worked out. This will be the first time the public will be allowed access to the property.

Riverfront Recapture Inc. will hold a grand opening celebration for its Riverfront Plaza from Sept. 3 to 5. The three-day event, announced Thursday, will include activities throughout the riverfront park system, focusing on the plaza, Hartford and Great River Park in East Hartford. There will be food, music, children's activities, sporting events, leisure activities, riverboat rides and more. The landscaped plaza over I-91 is the centerpiece of an effort begun in 1981 to restore public access to the Connecticut River, which had been cut off from the community by the interstate highway and a system of flood-control dikes.

GLASTONBURY — The town council voted unanimously Tuesday to set up a $400,000 special revenue fund to help offset the initial expense of opening the new boathouse and boat launch in Riverfront Park. But Town Manager Richard J. Johnson said he plans to operate the park on a cost-neutral basis — having the revenue cover operating costs — in the future. Last month, the town set its fee structure for public use of the boat launch and of the upper level of the $2 million boathouse, which can be rented as a banquet facility.

The design and permitting process has begun for the second phase of Riverfront Park, but with a multitude of local, state and federal permits required, it will be months before work on the project can begin. Town Manager Richard J. Johnson said the timetable is consistent with a master plan the town council approved in July. The project area is a swath of undeveloped land from Naubuc Avenue to the former Hallmark Tire Inc. property along the Connecticut River south and west of the Riverfront Community Center.

Make no mistake about it: The park taking shape along the Connecticut riverfront in Hartford and East Hartford -- the one that one day will stretch into Wethersfield and Windsor -- is a regional park. The network of pathways, parks and landings will be an economic and recreational asset not only to Hartford but to its neighbors. Yet in a state steeped in local control, where regionalism is a fighting word, how will the park be administered? In true Land of Steady Habits style, through a patchwork of agreements that try to cater to every local whim.

The town plan and zoning commission will review a proposal tonight for the last remaining empty lot along Glastonbury Boulevard. The Residences At Somerset Square was originally proposed in 2008 as a 155-unit building with an underground garage. With a poor economy, the building was never constructed. Now developers have returned to the commission seeking to reduce the number of units to 116 with a parking garage on the first level. The commission will also hold a public hearing on the town's second phase of the Riverfront Park.

By PETER MARTEKA, pmarteka@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, April 10, 2013

Main Street and the second phase of the Riverfront Park will be the town's main focus as the 2013 construction season gets underway. Change is already in progress along the Connecticut River, with the former Hallmark Tire facility demolished and removed by town crews earlier this week, making room for construction of the new boathouse and boat launch. The park expansion, planned on the site of a former oil tank farm and abandoned tire dealership, includes a launching area for small craft – such as kayaks -- and a public boat launch.

By PETER MARTEKA, pmarteka@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, August 7, 2012

With some calling it a chance to "create a gateway to the Connecticut River," the town council voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve a proposed $12 million expansion of Riverfront Park that will reconnect the town with the historic waterway. "For the first time in modern history, we will have complete access to the Connecticut River," Councilman Kurt P. Cavanaugh said. "We stand at a turning point as to how we view ourselves and how future generations will view us… Each town along the river has something that helps define the character of the town.

Anyone with thoughts of visiting the town's planned riverfront park this summer must try again next year, when the park may be open to the public. From its northwestern border with Glastonbury to its southeastern border with East Hampton, the town has about 11 miles of frontage on the Connecticut River, none of which is accessible to the public. The riverfront park will change that by offering hiking trails through lush vegetation and the only public boat launch onto the river in the midstate region.

GLASTONBURY - With the finishing touches being put on the second phase of the Riverfront Park expansion, an insurance company has stepped forward to help a local service group. When GoodWorks Insurance learned that the Glastonbury Rotary Club was involved in building a new pavilion at the town's Riverfront Park, Senior Vice-President Ed Ryan said the company wanted to help. The company donates at least 50 percent of its operating profits each year to community-based nonprofits supporting education, healthcare and public safety.

In the early part of the 20 t h century, commerce started to turn away from the Connecticut River and focused on the ribbons of roads and highways that started to crisscross the state. Many towns and cities along the river followed suit and turned their backs on the waterways that helped build them. Cromwell was no different. Its attachment to the river began shortly after the town was settled in 1650, when it was known as Upper Houses, a section of Middletown. During the 1600s and 1700s, the area along the river was a bustling seaport with several large warehouses and shipbuilding yards.

Shaded Soul's appearance at last year's Riverfront Music Festival was called off due to severe weather, but fingers are crossed for this year's show, slated for July 16. Shaded Soul has seen a few changes in its 29 years. Bandleader and founder Renee Prescott said the group, which also has played in Glastonbury several times in the past, is bringing a lot of newness to the table for 2014's show. "We have some new members," she said, adding that an update of the band's music is also newer material, incluing some songs being played currently on the radio.

GLASTONBURY - More than a dozen volunteers armed with loppers and pruning shears battled invasive plants at Ferry Landing last weekend. According to organizer Ann Pettengill, 15 volunteers from the Glastonbury Partners in Planting's Battling Invasive Group cut "massive amounts" of bittersweet vines growing at the park located to the south of the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury ferry landing. She estimated that about 100 tall, stately trees were saved from the "terrorist bittersweet vines" along the half-mile trail.

By ERIK HESSELBERG, Special to The Courant and The Hartford Courant, May 23, 2014

PORTLAND — A concert bandshell will grace the town's 43-acre riverfront park, thanks to a $365,000 state grant. The grant, from the Small Town Economic Assistance Program and announced last week, will also allow for a water and sewer hookup for public restrooms, additional landscaping and handicapped access to the park, which sits on reclaimed quarry land along the Connecticut River. "We are thrilled to receive this grant," said Portland First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield. "This will improve the functionality of the park and enable more people to enjoy it. " The park along Brownstone Avenue is adjacent the old brownstone quarries from which came the brown rock that was used in fashionable 19th century row houses.

By PETER MARTEKA, pmarteka@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, April 15, 2014

GLASTONBURY — The Pinchot Sycamore in Simsbury is one of the largest and oldest trees in Connecticut. It's that kind of arboreal legacy the town is hoping to dupicate at its new Riverfront Park. The town received a $12,000 grant Monday from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for its "legacy tree walk. " Town Manager Richard J. Johnson said the money will be used to plant American sycamores on a path along the banks of the Connecticut River. "We have a great project with a very nice planting plan that was well-suited to the grant program," Johnson said Tuesday.

There were dozens of questions ranging from architecture to the kitchen sink, but most of the people at a public hearing Tuesday expressed enthusiasm about a proposal for a senior center on the Connecticut River. "This is something the town can be proud of," William McGaw, a member of the town's commission on aging, said after town officials gave details about the proposed project. "This is not going to be a private clubhouse for senior citizens. I'd like to see the town get behind it. . . . It's going to be for everyone," he said.

By PETER MARTEKA, pmarteka@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, January 2, 2014

Although construction of the boathouse at Riverfront Park missed a Dec. 31 deadline for completion of the exterior, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has granted an extension for the project. Town Manager Richard J. Johnson said the $12 million park expansion that includes a two-story boathouse and boat launch was required to have all exterior work completed by the end of December to protect nesting bald eagles along the Connecticut River.

With the boathouse frame nearly completed on a knoll along the Connecticut River, the town has picked out a color for the fiber cement siding of the building: taupe putty. "One of the goals was to look for a color that was timeless," Town Manager Richard J. Johnson said, "that is not something that in two or three years will be a color folks might say, 'Well, geez, that was a nice color three or four years ago, but is not timeless.'" Johnson said the boathouse will have off-white trim and grey architectural shingles.